A SOLICITOR for an off-duty firefighter who was shot with a stun gun and handcuffed said independent investigators had ‘no confidence’ in an internal police probe of the arrest.

Edric Kennedy-Macfoy, of north London, claims he was treated differently because he is black when he was apprehended as he approached riot officers who were trying to subdue an out-of-control party in a property in Harrow View, Harrow, in September 2011.

The 28-year-old was acquitted of obstructing police and resisting arrest in February 2012 at Willesden Magistrates’ Court and, the following month, lodged an official complaint, leading to an investigation of six officers’ actions by the Metropolitan Police’s own Directorate of Professional Standards with supervision by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

The IPCC said last week: “Having now reviewed the report provided by the Metropolitan Police to the IPCC on March 1, the IPCC will now independently investigate the complaint.”

Mr Kennedy-Macfoy’s solicitor, Shamik Dutta of Bhatt Murphy solicitors, said: “This is a vote of no confidence by the IPCC in the Met’s ability to investigate its own officers.”

The firefighter, model and actor was on his way from Watford to South Harrow when he stopped at a police roadblock in Harrow View in order to give officers the description of a youth he saw smash a police van window with a rock. Mr Kennedy-Macfoy, dressed in a pinstripe suit, was dragged from his £30,000 white Audi and hit with a spasm-inducing Taser stun gun. In his cell he wrote a witness appeal that was distributed to households around Harrow View and posted online in which he alleged multiple officers involved acted like ‘wild animals’ and ‘a mob’.

He said of the IPCC announcement: “After all these months I am still waiting to see if any officers will be prosecuted for what happened to me. I hope the IPCC will conduct a thorough investigation. Its failure to take this step at the outset means that it has a lot of work to do to restore my faith in this process.”

IPCC commissioner Jennifer Izekor said: “The IPCC will thoroughly review the evidence already obtained and conduct further enquiries as necessary. We need to be satisfied that Mr Kennedy-Macfoy’s serious allegations have been comprehensively examined.”

A Met Police spokeswoman said: “These were serious allegations and the MPS referred them to the IPCC in April 2012. We are not prepared to comment further whilst there is an on-going investigation.”